Banana loaf or-anyway-you-want-it-cake.

No you don't have to make this as a loaf cake. My mother-in-law makes it in an 8-inch tin and slices it like a round cake.

Something about banana cake tells me it has to be in a loaf, unless there are multiple layers and an abundance of icing!

I promised my Nana that this was the EASIEST banana cake recipe and it has proved so popular with her neighbours, that they bring her old bananas in hope that she'll make it again!

Ingredients:
1 large very ripe banana, although I usually use 2!
5 oz. self raising flour
1 egg
5 oz. Caster sugar
2 oz. butter
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt

Method:

 

Put oven on - 170'c. 

Mash banana and put aside.

Beat butter and sugar together until smooth and creamy.   Because there isn't enough fat, it sort of forms a solid lump.  Keep going.  I turn the speed down and it becomes smooth.

Add egg and mix in.

Add banana and mix in.

 

In a separate bowl, mix your dry ingredients - flour, bicarb and salt.

 

Fold the dry ingredients into the batter using a METAL spoon.

 

At this point I sometimes add chocolate chips or nuts.

 

Pour into a lined tin.

 

Bake in a loaf tin for 35 mins or 45-50 mins if you add chocolate chips.

 

 

Today I'm experiementing by making smaller loaves in mini tines.  Already the batter is rising over the tin, despite being two thirds full... (The batter does make 6 but 4 fit on this baking tray!)

 

I've baked these for 20 mins so far.  Adding another 5...

 

 

Ta-daaaaah!!

 

 

170'C for 25 mins.  Going to my Aunt's house for lunch tomorrow. 

Can't wait to put these in pretty bags for her!

 

 

 

The mother-in-laws method:

 

"Put everything but the flour and Bicarb. into a liquidizer for 1 minute at low speed.

Pour into bowl and all flour and bicard and mix.

I cook mine more as a cake in a loaf tin at 170'c for 40 minutes or a 7" round tin for 25 mins."

 

 

 

Slimming World Watercress Soup

Long time, not blog! 
So much has happened in my personal life.  The main one being that I'm restricted to school holidays to type as I'm a teacher and the intensity of teaching means that my inspiration can tend to fail in term time!
Nick and I have joined Slimming World, though.  He's lost 14 lbs and I've lost 21 lbs!  I've been saying for the last 3 months that I should post some of the delicious Slimming World recipes that we've created. So I will try...

Today's delight is my favourite soup in the world - Watercress.  I could have this every day!

It's stupidly simple and completely sin free!  Way hey!!

ingredients

• 2 potatoes, peeled and chopped
• 2 onions, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 800ml stock  (You could actually make this 1 litre)
• 2 bags of watercress, chopped

serves 2-3
1. In a large saucepan, sauté the potatoes, onions and and garlic in olive oil. Add the stock and simmer until the potatoes are soft. Add the chopped watercress and cook for 3–4 minutes.
2. Liquidise the soup until smooth.

 

 

The colour is so green.  I made the mistake of devouring it as soon as I had liquidised the soup.  It was a little foamy!! Next time, I'll let it sit for a while.

 

This made 4 portions.  Enjoy!

Porchetta style Pork Loin

This is all Nick's idea, not mine I'm afraid!!  But it looks too good to miss an opportunity in sharing.

I cannot tell you how good our home smells right now! 

I bought a pork loin in the reduced section of the local supermarket and Nick suggested cutting it flat and adding a layer of stuffing so that it cooks inside.

He is sat with me now to talk through the pictures.  By the way, I love living with a chef!!

Here is the stuffing made and ready to go. 
We used a supermarket brand but you could always make your own.

Place the stuffing between two sheets of clingflim (plastic wrap).

Use a rolling pin to roll the stuffing to the length of the meat.

Nick decided to be "chefy" here and measure the stuffing exactly to the meat.
You could always just press the stuffing to the meat instead of rolling it out, if you like.

The stuffing on the meat, ready to roll.

Carefully wrap the meat on to itself.

 

You want the crackling on the top.

Tie the meat using kitchen string.
Don't worry about the stuffing coming out. 
Nick pressed it to the meat before it went into the oven.

Nick used some carrots, onion, a couple of garlic cloves and some thyme to help make a stock for the gravy.

Ta dah!! AAAmazing!

Cook the meat at 230'Cfor 20 mins and then turn the owen down to 190'C and cook for approx 30-40 mins according to the size of the joint.  If you use a meat probe, the temperature should be 65'C when done.


I cannot tell you how much I'm looking forward to this dinner.

I know.  I am very VERY fortunate.

Summer Squash Pesto Bites - perfect for canapes

I am so pleased with this appetiser idea! 
(Summer squash look like - and are really - yellow courgettes.  They have a taste of pumpkin, though, and the seeds are scrummy!)

 

We had some cold meats to serve and these added another texture and flavour.  Please note - these were the first of our tomatoes to grow!! 4 sweet red baby plums :)
I posted a recipe for my homegrown arugula/rocket pesto in July.  I put it in the freezer, as promised, and I planned to enjoy it in the colder months but I had a brainwave for an appetiser idea.

Nick cut the summer squash with a mandolin for me.  If you don't have one, just try and cut the vegetable thinly and evenly.

Chargrill the pieces until they are just golden.  I love the lines created by the pan.  Don't grill them too much otherwise the seeds come loose and the squash becomes too floppy.

Let the squash pieces cool down.  Nick some cling film (plastic wrap) over the bowl while we went to water the garden, which could have made them too wet.  They turned out ok but next time I would let them dry a little.

Lay them out and use a teaspoon to spread some pesto on each one.

Roll them up and stand in a cluster to serve with your cold meats.

 

They are cool and nutty with the mixture of squash seeds and pine nuts.

My Mum LOVED these, which is a good compliment!

Gift ideas - easy peasy candle making

Have a go at making some homemade candles as gift ideas.

You can even melt old candles down and get quite creative with layering, etc!

 

Rose scented teacup candles

 

 

Kitchen candles

 

So on this blog back after Christmas 2011, I said that I received a candle making kit and planned to make some gifts. It only took a year and a half to do!  I really wish I had started earlier.

 

I recommend buying a few things first:

 

- I bought a pan to melt my candle wax in. I found it in a charity shop.  There is no chance I would risk using any of Nicks pans!!

 

- I also picked up some tea cups and saucers from charity shops (thrift stores) that I thought would make good gifts.  The French tins are from cassoulet that we bought last October.  I thought the labels were adorable so saved them to make my kitchen candles.

 

- aromatherapy oils.  I used rose oil for the tea cups and bergamot and lemon for the kitchen candles.

 

- these wicks below.  I got these in a craft shop.  It meant I didn't have to worry about tying them up.

- These held the wicks still and helped me keep them central. Perfect for the cups and tins.

 

My candle making kit explained how to melt the candle wax pieces in a pan over a larger pan of water.  You MUST NOT let the wax boil so keep an eye on it. 

 

Make sure you put your wick in your container in the centre so that the wax melts evenly when the candle is lit.

 

Once there are no more solid pieces, add the aromatherapy oil.  Make sure you mix it in as I noticed the oil at the bottom of the pan and last to go in my containers.

 

Pour the wax into your containers.  Leave a couple of cms from the top.  Once the wax has set, trim the wick to just below the level of the container.

 

 

And there you go!!

 

Another Christmas gift ready.  SO cheap and homemade!

 





Christmas mincemeat - make now, store for December

So Nick's Mum has a Mason jar of mincemeat in our fridge that she made a couple of years ago.  Hearing that she had made the filling as we ate some homemade mince pies last Christmas was pretty inspiring.  I am so looking forward to giving my mum a jar to use and knowing I made it.

I followed Delia (sorry, St. Delia!) Smith's recipe which was super simple.

My only grizzle is the 3 hour oven bake the following day, which is expensive to do - in my opinion.  But I also made a cake for friends at the same time and it ended up working out for them to be finished at the same time.

This recipe made 2 jars of mincemeat.  I did press it down to make sure I didn't have too much air in the jar.  I'm not sure whether that was right or not, but it meant that I have only 2 jars.  I may make some more and give them away as gifts...

I split the mixture in half and added the brandy to one so that I have one boozy and one not.

 

The dry ingredients.

I added the apple at the end...

 



I meant to say that I put the rind from the orange and lemon in a bowl and added 2 Earl Grey tea bags to the juices.  I thought it would be nice to infuse some Earl Grey in there.  Next time I would heat the juice a little to make sure it works. 

 

After bringing the mix out of the oven. It didn't look like there was fat floating on it, as the recipe states but I did use vegetable suet.  Maybe that made a difference.  Keep stirring it as it cools.  I out a clean cloth over the pan and went out so it was a bit congealed by the time I got back...

 

 



So, enough chatter.  On to the recipe:

Home-made Christmas Mincemeat Home-made mincemeat is dead simple to make. But in the past people used to have trouble storing it. This was because the high percentage of apples oozed too much juice and the juice started to ferment. In the following recipe the mincemeat is placed in a barely warm oven and so the suet gradually melts and as this happens it coats all the fruits, including the apples, sealing in the juices. Vegetarians can make this mincemeat happily, using vegetarian suet.

Makes 3 lb (1.35 kg) This recipe is adapted from Delia Smith’s Christmas. Ingredients  8oz (225g) Bramley apples, cored and chopped small (no need to peel them)  4 oz (110 g) shredded suet  6oz (175 g) raisins  4oz (110 g) sultanas  4oz (110 g) currants  4oz (110 g) whole mixed candied peel, finely chopped  6oz (175 g) soft dark brown sugar  grated zest and juice 1 orange  grated zest and juice 1 lemon  1 oz (25 g) whole almonds, cut into slivers  2 level teaspoons mixed ground spice  ¼ level teaspoon ground cinnamon  good pinch freshly grated nutmeg  3 tablespoons brandy Equipment You will also need 3 x 1lb (350ml) preserving jars and 3 waxed discs. Method All you do is combine all the ingredients, except for the brandy, in a large mixing bowl, stirring them and mixing them together very thoroughly indeed. Then cover the bowl with a clean cloth and leave the mixture in a cool place overnight or for 12 hours, so the flavours have a chance to mingle and develop. After that pre-heat the oven to gas mark ¼, 225°F (120°C). Cover the bowl loosely with foil and place it in the oven for 3 hours, then remove the bowl from the oven. Don't worry about the appearance of the mincemeat, which will look positively swimming in fat. This is how it should look. As it cools, stir it from time to time; the fat will coagulate and, instead of it being in tiny shreds, it will encase all the other ingredients. When the mincemeat is quite cold, stir well again, adding the brandy. Pack in jars that have been sterilised (see below). When filled, cover with waxed discs and seal. The mincemeat will keep for ages in a cool, dark cupboard but I think it is best eaten within a year of making. NOTE: To sterilise jars, wash the jars and lids in warm soapy water, rinse well, then dry thoroughly with a clean tea cloth, place them on a baking tray and pop into a medium oven, gas mark 4, 350F, 180C, for 5 minutes. RECIPE COST: £3.65

Asian style sweet and zingy pork belly

When I met Nick last spring, he introduced me to pork belly.  I had eaten it before but Nick (being a chef) is able to crisp up that fat and create dreamy suppers with this juicy meat.  It's naughty and I feel like a child sneakily eating some cake every time.  And just like the gooey chocolate cake, it is SO GOOD!

Combined with some gravy made with the meat juices, I am in heaven.  There's rumour that I may have also drank some of said gravy directly from the gravy boat when Nick turned to the kitchen.  I don't know who would do such a thing.....!!

We bought a pork belly meal from M&S a while ago and cooked it last night which filled the house with a smell similar to hoisin duck.  (We LOVE hoisin duck!)

It was tender and had this sweet glaze that made a meat that is already moreish, a dish that melted in our mouths and created sounds of agreement that this was better than GOOD!

The meat had been marinated and came with a sauce to put on top for the last 10 minutes of cooking.

Listen, it looks like it takes FOREVER to cook but I promise you it will be worth it, even if JUST for the yummy smell in your home.

On this misty and murky morning I'm still thinking about it.  We noted the ingredients to the marinade and hope to recreate it ourselves sometime.

Take a look and see if you can figure out the quantities!
(Obviously, the quantities will decrease as you go down the list)

Marinade:
muscovado sugar      (no wonder it was good!)
light soy sauce
garlic puree
red chillies
fish sauce
ground spices - ginger, cinnamon, cloves, star anise
rapeseed oil
lemon juice

Coat the meat and make sure you save some for the day you cook it.

Marinade the meat overnight in a disposable baking tray.

Cooking directions:

Set oven temp to 190'C/170'C fan/375'F
Put the marinated meat into the oven on a disposable tray. (This is messy and the marinade caramelises to a burnt sugar.  I would NOT want to get that out of my pans!)

Bake the pork for 1hr 15 minutes.

Then remove from the oven and spoon more marinade evenly over the meat. 
Return to the oven for 10 minutes. 
Allow the meat to rest for another 10 minutes before carving.